Forever
by Wr3n
Summary: There is a semblance of normality after the Red Decision... Liara lies awake, and contemplates her beloved partner. *OnEsHoT*


The light of the holographic chrono, shining atop the nearby nightstand, casts a soft blue vibrancy about the bedroom.

Blinking somnolently, I stare down at my bedpartner, bathed within the blue light and the black shadow of what is left of the midnight hour. My hand, almost of its own volition, lowers toward the dually lighted face… The back of my fingers ghost, lightly, down the aquiline nose and over the scarred lips… Even now, I would kiss them, again and again, softly, to feel the seams of ruptured skin, and taste of the broken mouth with the tip of my tongue, if she hadn't just fallen asleep, mere moments ago.

Shepard.

My fingers linger on her squared chin, feeling gently at the softness of the skin there. Even when she sleeps, I note – not for the first time – her brow is perpetually furrowed. Even in sleep, she is in consternation, seemingly with the weight of a galaxy pressing down upon her shoulders, as her life's every demon and every unwelcome spectre, hides in wait in her dreams and nightmares.

Jane.

My own brows lower as I contemplate sinking, stealthily, into a meld with her. The bond between us now is so strong, that I can enter her mind without mantra, without rule, without doubt.

I have seen her mind in the throes of nightmare… I know what plagues her most. I have witnessed the ozonic muzzle-flash, heard the harsh bark, and felt the jump of the recoiling pistol in Jane's hand as she fired, over and over, enraged, at the Catalyst's device. I have seen the Reapers in their myriads, dropping from the sky at her feet, falling like stars, ablaze with dead judgement. I have seen the breadth of the galaxy, through her watering eyes, as sections of it exploded, system to system, shattering glitteringly, relay to relay, burgeoning in the wake of rippling red destruction. I have partaken of these horrors, and more, and even in such tribulation… I know she oft thought of me.

My soldier. My saviour.

How could I have ever fallen or failed? When she disallowed herself such selfishness, such peace, and came back over and over, for us all… How could I have done anything but survive, succeed, for her in return? And yet, she must not know just how totally she owns each integral part of me. It would only make her despair of her fleeting human years, I know.

Beneath my breast, something cramps, and my eyes begin to limn with tears at the thought. Swallowing hard, I blink away the hot brine, and my fingertips move, tremblingly, over the scarred lips.

Goddess. What exquisite pain is borne of love.

"Liara…?"

Before my eyes, the marked lips open and then close once again, softly, beneath the touch of my fingertips.

"Can't sleep?"

The eyes attempt to open, and do, but only minutely. Her eyes' true, and peculiar, lavender hue is morphed from the dual light of the bedroom, and subdued with sleepiness. I smile down at Jane, my Jane, as heartbeats of comfortable silence pass between us, until I feel her smile back at me against my fingers.

"I love you," I breathe, consciously leaving out words such as 'forever', or 'always', because she simply cannot know that it wouldn't be a sweet lie. The definition of steadfastness, integrity, can take on abyssal new meanings when an asari finds someone precious, such as her, to bond to. Promises, vows, can last more than lifetimes… But, Jane must not suspect this of me. What senseless knowledge I could bring her, with the admission that I will be left in the darkness of the world at her absence… The darkness, of which, I have already tasted two years' worth.

"I love you too, Liara," Jane says, frowning slightly.

She turns her face, and my fingers slip into the silken darkness of her hair, until she pauses to press a kiss, deeply, into my palm. My heart begins to thrum, and sudden heat rises from my chest, to purple up to my cheeks. Needful, I guide Jane to come into a kiss, while our freed arms wind to bring us closer together.

Her broken lips touch my own, warm, and gentle, and sensuously open. Almost immediately, I swoon in her embrace, feeling myself willing, ready, to yield to the fierce, stalwart, flawed, and utterly beautiful spirit that she embodies to me. The stray thought of allowing my tongue to trespass, desirously, the serenity of her kiss heats my cheeks further… but, I do not trespass.

Thankfully, Jane is never content with a single kiss, however, and so she pulls away from me once, twice, three times, only to place a trio of achingly slow, painfully tender, signature kisses onto my mouth.

Afterward I bend, sighing, mouth still burning, as she rests her wetted lips onto my brow, while we hold each other close.

"What were you dreaming?" I ask, before mulling the taste on my lips.

Her fine, strong hand runs down my naked arm, and rises slowly, to squeeze at my shoulder. "I don't know," she murmurs.

But, I do know, I think silently. Tonight, perhaps it could have been The Citadel afire, splintering to pieces beneath the ravening crush of Sovereign. It could have been the multitudes of podded humans, thrashing, screaming in chorus, wall to wall, while being rendered alive to foul liquid. It could have been the frenzied, strangling, burning, eternity that was her astral descent to Alchera. Or, it could have been the wildly treacherous, heart-stopping, vision of – that idiot – Ashley Williams sighting her down the barrel of a gun, during Udina and Cerberus' Coup.

"Why? Did I -"

I shake my head, and clear my mind of the dark reveries, before huddling closer to Jane. "No," I whisper, while absently looking across the sloped plane of her t-shirted chest, "Jane…" I murmur, "Will you promise me something?"

"Anything."

Beneath my face, her heart thumping out a consistent beat does not blunder… Tears, again, threaten the corners of my eyes, but I drink in a steadying breath, and push past the heady moment of symbolic sentimentality. "Jane, I want you," I say clearly, "Promise that we will make time to be bonded, at least before the next decade passes."

Immediately, her hand, which was caressing me, moves swiftly to crook a finger beneath my chin. With my face suddenly tipped upward, I gaze into the sharp, and unblinking, lock of Jane's lavender eyes. "It's… not a formal proposal," I stammer, abashed, in a feeble attempt to lessen the severity of my delivery. A betraying heat begins to radiate from my body, I am aware, as my racing mind goes supernova, "I just mean… that… well - "

"Liara."

"Yes?" I say, too quickly and too weakly, I note with ire at myself. Somehow, only Jane can turn me into a blundering Maiden without even trying.

An instant of charged silence flickers between Jane and I until, before my eyes, she begins to smile up at me, widely, smugly.

"Goddess," I mutter, smilingly, despite myself. The tension I manufactured breaks, suddenly, easily, as we laugh together for a moment.

"Liara," Jane says afterward, "I never doubted we'd be bonded at some point. But, to hear you ask…" Jane's words falter, and drift into a swallowing realm of gravid silence. She seems able, only, to stare at me, wonderingly, and the look in her lavender eyes, fixed so intensely to mine, tangibly gives me a shock. Looking on one another so, her hand beneath my chin opens, and glides upward to cover my cheek. "Liara, it won't take me a decade to make you mine," she says, quietly, "I promise."

The timbre of her voice as she spoke, muted and yet adamant, as if she were rendering to me her soul's most guarded secret, fills me with an indescribable feeling… My eyes close, even as I feel the electricity of a biotic-show begin to ripple down my body. "Jane," I hear myself whisper, as my mouth covers her own.

Behind my eyelids, I am hardly aware of the white-blue flare that lights the entire bedroom, in a momentary burst of prickling energy. I am hardly aware, either, as the bedsheets fly from our entwining bodies, to mingle with the serpentine skirls of biotic energy coming from me.

When I open my eyes, I see Jane, denuded, lying beneath me on a landscape bed of stars… She finds my hands in the nictating light, and links our fingers together… staring up at me, she utters one word, only. I am undone by it, and the stars begin to move like rain…


End file.
